1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to protective equipment for athletic competitions. More particularly, the present invention relates to protective helmets worn by athletes upon their heads during athletic competition.
2. Background Information
Plastic football helmets have been known in the art. Initially faceguards were rigidly fastened to the plastic helmets by methods such as bolting. Later, the welded wire faceguard was redesigned to incorporate a flexible mounting system. Further, a loop strap attachment method was designed to provide an easy and universal method to attach the faceguards onto a wide variety of helmets. The molded loop straps absorbed energy caused by the multiple collisions sustained during the game, and the loop straps prevented the impact energy from being transmitted to the plastic football shell. Further, in the case of an emergency, the two lower side mount locations could be cut, and the faceguard could pivot about the top loop strap attachment points. As technology advanced, side loop straps have been placed in angular positions and in tension positions to allow the strap to better absorb the impacted energy by creating more distance for the strap to stretch and decelerate the impacted energy.
However, the thickness of the above described loop straps create separation between the shell of the helmet and the attached faceguard. This separation prevents the faceguard from being directly in contact with the shell of the helmet, and thus, the faceguard is prevented from being totally integrated into the design of the helmet.